J
JohnStivens
Hello Everyone,
Before I begin this post, I would like to state the following:
1) Yes I am aware that Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft. It's not actually a problem in this case, as the PC in question does not go on the Internet and the only outside files it deals with come from a Digital Camera.
2) The printer is supported on Windows XP, it states so on the box it came in and drivers for XP are available on the CD-ROM that came with the printer, and also on HP's website.
3) I have solved the immediate problem myself. I post here in the vague hope that someone can tell me why the problem I'm about to describe occurred (especially as this printer installed twice on this PC before (in Windows XP) without problems).
With that out of the way...
OK, I openly admit that this is a bit of a weird problem, so I will provide a bit of background before asking the question:
BACKGROUND:
We have an older model Packard Bell I-Media PC that, until a couple of days ago was dual booting Windows XP Pro (with SP3) and Windows Vista Home Premium (with SP2) on two different physical hard drives. The PC is mainly used for basic Word Processing, Spread sheets, etc. and does not go on the internet anymore.
Two days ago, I attempted to boot Windows Vista, as I needed to access a MS Publisher file I had created in Vista. Vista appeared to be booting normally, but at the point where the green animated bar disappears, the hard drive on which Vista was installed chose to fail. I'm not entirely sure what Vista was doing at the point of the hard drive failure, but when I restarted the PC and tried to boot XP, it wouldn't boot. XP showed up in the Windows Boot Loader, but when I tried to start it I got a "Cannot find C:\Windows\System32" error and the system halted.
What I have done is physically remove the hard drive on which Vista was installed and reformatted and reinstalled Windows XP Pro on the other Hard Drive.
So far, so good.
THE PROBLEM:
When I got to the point where I wanted to reinstall the software for the HP ENVY 4504 on XP Pro, the installer appeared to proceed normally. I custom installed selecting the HP Help System and HP Smart Print options. I did not opt to install Google Chrome or the Google Toolbar.
The installer proceeded to Step 1 of 3: HP ENVY 4504 basic driver software, and almost completed this step, but then I got a Windows XP Driver Update Wizard screen saying that the wizard could not install the driver for the SIS AGP Port (Eh???) and when I clicked on the Finish button on the Wizard, the HP installer failed, (A driver call to a package installed under C:\Program Files\HP failed) and the printer had not been installed.
Things I tried to get the installer to work, but made no difference:
> Reboot Windows XP Pro.
> Disable Windows Firewall
> Disable Antivirus
> Remove the SIS AGP Port driver (This did actually make a difference, but only in the sense that the HP ENVY installer now gives the SIS IDE Controller in the Windows Driver Update Wizard).
The interesting thing to note is, I did check both the AGP port and the IDE controller in Device Manager after the HP installer failed. Both were using the correct drivers and were working properly.
The AGP driver (and graphics card driver) have been reinstalled without incident.
THIS IS HOW I SOLVED THE PROBLEM:
> I downloaded the Basic Driver Pack (a self - extracting EXE file) for the ENVY 4504 from HP's website (on another PC that runs Windows 10) and burnt it to a CD.
> I did not run the self - extracting EXE.
> I used 7-Zip to manually extract the contents of the file to a temporary folder.
> I opened Windows XP Device Manager and noticed three instances of HP ENVY 4504 under Other Devices.
> I ran the Update Driver Wizard on each instance of HP ENVY 4504 and told it to look in the folder I extracted the contents of HP's Basic Driver Pack to.
Success! The drivers installed and the Printer and scanner portions of the machine are working again.
AND SO, MY QUESTIONS:
Does anyone have any idea why the HP ENVY 4504 failed to install through the usual channels, especially when it has installed on this Windows on this PC on 2 previous occasions without any trouble?
Why would the installer for a printer try to install drivers to the AGP port / IDE controller?
If anyone can shed some light on this, I would be grateful.
Continue reading...
Before I begin this post, I would like to state the following:
1) Yes I am aware that Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft. It's not actually a problem in this case, as the PC in question does not go on the Internet and the only outside files it deals with come from a Digital Camera.
2) The printer is supported on Windows XP, it states so on the box it came in and drivers for XP are available on the CD-ROM that came with the printer, and also on HP's website.
3) I have solved the immediate problem myself. I post here in the vague hope that someone can tell me why the problem I'm about to describe occurred (especially as this printer installed twice on this PC before (in Windows XP) without problems).
With that out of the way...
OK, I openly admit that this is a bit of a weird problem, so I will provide a bit of background before asking the question:
BACKGROUND:
We have an older model Packard Bell I-Media PC that, until a couple of days ago was dual booting Windows XP Pro (with SP3) and Windows Vista Home Premium (with SP2) on two different physical hard drives. The PC is mainly used for basic Word Processing, Spread sheets, etc. and does not go on the internet anymore.
Two days ago, I attempted to boot Windows Vista, as I needed to access a MS Publisher file I had created in Vista. Vista appeared to be booting normally, but at the point where the green animated bar disappears, the hard drive on which Vista was installed chose to fail. I'm not entirely sure what Vista was doing at the point of the hard drive failure, but when I restarted the PC and tried to boot XP, it wouldn't boot. XP showed up in the Windows Boot Loader, but when I tried to start it I got a "Cannot find C:\Windows\System32" error and the system halted.
What I have done is physically remove the hard drive on which Vista was installed and reformatted and reinstalled Windows XP Pro on the other Hard Drive.
So far, so good.
THE PROBLEM:
When I got to the point where I wanted to reinstall the software for the HP ENVY 4504 on XP Pro, the installer appeared to proceed normally. I custom installed selecting the HP Help System and HP Smart Print options. I did not opt to install Google Chrome or the Google Toolbar.
The installer proceeded to Step 1 of 3: HP ENVY 4504 basic driver software, and almost completed this step, but then I got a Windows XP Driver Update Wizard screen saying that the wizard could not install the driver for the SIS AGP Port (Eh???) and when I clicked on the Finish button on the Wizard, the HP installer failed, (A driver call to a package installed under C:\Program Files\HP failed) and the printer had not been installed.
Things I tried to get the installer to work, but made no difference:
> Reboot Windows XP Pro.
> Disable Windows Firewall
> Disable Antivirus
> Remove the SIS AGP Port driver (This did actually make a difference, but only in the sense that the HP ENVY installer now gives the SIS IDE Controller in the Windows Driver Update Wizard).
The interesting thing to note is, I did check both the AGP port and the IDE controller in Device Manager after the HP installer failed. Both were using the correct drivers and were working properly.
The AGP driver (and graphics card driver) have been reinstalled without incident.
THIS IS HOW I SOLVED THE PROBLEM:
> I downloaded the Basic Driver Pack (a self - extracting EXE file) for the ENVY 4504 from HP's website (on another PC that runs Windows 10) and burnt it to a CD.
> I did not run the self - extracting EXE.
> I used 7-Zip to manually extract the contents of the file to a temporary folder.
> I opened Windows XP Device Manager and noticed three instances of HP ENVY 4504 under Other Devices.
> I ran the Update Driver Wizard on each instance of HP ENVY 4504 and told it to look in the folder I extracted the contents of HP's Basic Driver Pack to.
Success! The drivers installed and the Printer and scanner portions of the machine are working again.
AND SO, MY QUESTIONS:
Does anyone have any idea why the HP ENVY 4504 failed to install through the usual channels, especially when it has installed on this Windows on this PC on 2 previous occasions without any trouble?
Why would the installer for a printer try to install drivers to the AGP port / IDE controller?
If anyone can shed some light on this, I would be grateful.
Continue reading...